Open-space advocates fight for creek, waterfall

OCEANSIDE -- Any development at a former rock quarry on the
Oceanside-Carlsbad border is in all likelihood years away, but the
fight to preserve the nearby creek and waterfall is just starting
to heat up.

More than 40 people attended an Oceanside City Council workshop
last week to hear a presentation on the reclamation plan for the
South Coast Asphalt/Quarry Creek site, where granite mining began
in 1961 and ended in 1995.

The El Salto Falls waterfall and the Buena Vista Creek running
through the quarry, south of Highway 78 and west of College
Boulevard on the Oceanside/Carlsbad border, escaped destruction
when developers built the Quarry Creek Shopping Center on the site
less than two years ago.

Preservationists want the entire quarry preserved as open space,
but San Diego developer McMillin Commercial and property owner
Hanson Aggregates Pacific Southwest have other plans, which may
include housing, commercial development, or both.

State law requires any abandoned mining site to have a
reclamation plan, and Oceanside has been designated the lead agency
to handle the plan for both cities, despite the fact that more than
100 acres of the 162.2-acre quarry site is in Carlsbad.

Reclaiming the land

The reclamation plan must conform to state and federal
requirements for developments built on former mining land, and it's
necessary before any development can go forward. Carlsbad has zoned
the eastern portion of its quarry land for industrial developments
and the western portion as residential. Oceanside's portion is
zoned light industrial.

Some are worried that the reclamation plan in its current form
doesn't do enough to protect Buena Vista Creek through the quarry.
They are asking for a bigger buffer between the creek and any
development, and have questioned whether the creek needs to be
touched at all.

"I don't want to see a Los Angeles channel here," Oceanside
Councilwoman Esther Sanchez said last week, referring to the
possibility of levees for the creek. "I want to see a creek."

Oceanside is just beginning the environmental review process for
the quarry, and that is expected to take months. After the
environmental review is finished, the plan will go to the city's
Planning Commission. Then it could come before the City
Council.

James Knowlton, a geotechnical consultant for Oceanside, said
that approving the reclamation plan gives no rights to the
developer or property owner.

"The approved reclamation plan actually maximizes development,"
Knowlton said, adding that the original alignment of the creek
gives the developer more land.

Carlsbad resident Michelle Mattson said last week that the
reclamation plan will ruin the look of the creek.

"It will look like the levees on the San Luis Rey River," she
said. "This is not necessary and it is not the definition of
restoration at all. This plan maximizes developer space and
minimizes protection of the creek."

She was among a dozen people at last week's workshop who said
the creek should be left alone and given wide open spaces from
development. Ann Gunter of Lightfoot Planning Group, which is
representing the developer and landowner, could not be reached last
week for comment.

Acting city planner Jerry Hittleman said that nothing is set in
stone.

"This is just the applicant's proposal," he said. "We'll be
looking through the full range of options through the environmental
review process."

Mel Vernon, a member of the San Luis Rey Band of Mission
Indians, said the land is sacred and should be kept as open
space.

"When I look at that land I don't see profit, I see heritage,"
he said. "The ground itself, the rocks that are there, make this a
special place."

Shelley Caron, who lives in the historical Marron Adobe about a
quarter-mile from the waterfall, said the quarry area is home to
migratory birds and other wildlife, adding that if she had her way,
developers would not be allowed to build anything on the
property.

"It's the last open space in the (Highway) 78 corridor," Caron
said. "It would be irresponsible to suggest that this land should
not be reclaimed as open space."

Hidden waterfall

To the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians, the waterfall is a
sacred site, and according to news reports, the waterfall was a
popular recreation spot a century ago.

Sitting directly on the border of Carlsbad and Oceanside -- some
claim it was located elsewhere before mining efforts -- the 40-foot
El Salto Falls is a pretty waterfall, accessible by coming into the
quarry from Haymar Drive, running along Highway 78.

The waterfall can also be seen from atop the embankment behind
the Kohl's Department Store in the Quarry Creek shopping center on
Marron Road.

Ducks and squirrels are plentiful along the creek leading to the
falls behind the shopping center, but so too are trash and
discarded clothes. Nearby, what looks like a homeless encampment is
set up beneath some tree branches.

But other than the squirrels and the homeless, few who haven't
been fighting to protect it know about the waterfall. It's not
listed as a destination in any area tour guide, and even people who
hunt out Southern California waterfalls said at last week's meeting
they were surprised to hear about it.

"This is a beautiful waterfall, and most people don't even know
it's there," said Mayor Jim Wood. "It's probably one of the
greatest spots in Oceanside for wedding photos."

Oceanside resident Victoria Beach compared it with another
waterfall in the Anza-Borrego Desert.

"I couldn't believe my eyes," Beach said, adding that if the
quarry were kept as open space, it could become a perfect tourist
destination. "The similarities are amazing, It's the perfect nexus,
the perfect destination that can bring inland people out and
coastal people in."